Dellbrügge & de Moll

The red flag flew from the roof of the Bethanien. A group of youths had squatted the building. Every week the media reported on police evictions. It was the spring before the “German Autumn” and a time for new beginnings. In 1971, the trespassing activities sent a signal that led to the preservation of the historic hospital from demolition. “This building has been empty for two years, is heated, is in good shape, in better condition than other apartments in Kreuzberg. It’s just sitting here unused, and we don’t have any place where we can live.” “It is meant for apprentices, homeless people, drug addicts, young workers and school children. We want the people who will live here to govern themselves,” explained squatters to the reporter from SFB, who continued: “And then in one of the buildings an art center emerges with working studios, workshops and exhibition spaces. Artists from all over the world come here to live and work. Now, studios, galleries and art exhibitions exist elsewhere too. This is not unique to the Bethanien. What’s special about the Berlin Künstlerhaus is its connection to the city and to its inhabitants.”

But the Künstlerhaus isn’t the only occupant that moves in – there is also a hodgepodge of local authorities painting the corridors in soap green, offering recreational and educational facilities and a broad range of events. However, the division and use of space – their effect and identity – were never coordinated. Preservation orders are used to prevent activities from being publicized on the building’s exterior. Now graffiti is the only thing that marks the outside walls of the building. You have to be an insider to know that behind this neglected façade and past the dirty corners where drug dealers go about their business, an art center produces 30 high-calibre exhibitions a year. Also, that you go directly to see exhibitions because there’s no infrastructure, no café or bookshop creating a welcoming atmosphere or persuading visitors to prolong their stay.

People are used to higher standards today, is Janine Becker and Anja Barenthin’s succinct commentary to their proposal Kunstplateau 36. The historical ensemble caught their attention when they moved to Kreuzberg as students. In their capacity as architects they took up the challenge of undeveloped potential, evaluated its structural attributes, gave due consideration to the question of heritage preservation, and conceived an architectural overhaul that reconsidered the needs of users and the public. The studios are to be transformed into apartment studios with a bathroom and kitchen instead of the communal shower and the hospital toilets. Studios I and II would regain a lightness that they lost through a history of additions and modifications resulting in a black box and a white cube.